Her teeth chattered on the last word.
“You have the keys, butdo notexplore. Your visit to the roof could have gone much worse. Do not go up there again. You cannot rely on the crow’s continued civility. Stick to the structures you know. Again, do not visit the crawler tunnels. I do not expect I need to say such things, but I’m saying them for my own peace of mind. Understood?”
“Understood.”
Green looked at his teacher.
Her lips were like day-old bruises and an unhealthy shadow wasbeginning to bloom on the tip of her nose. He thought of the girl under the sheet at Kinkaid Cabins, the dark stains he had mistaken for Catskill’s touch.
“You don’t think you’ll be coming back from this, do you?”
“Hope for the best, prepare for the worst, Mr. Green.”
“That’s it? You really are just going to…what did you say to Clara? Plug the rathole with your life?”
She looked angry, then tired.
She turned and kept shuffling down the trail, speaking to the dark woods ahead.
“We are out of time. If I did not believe it was worth doing, I would not be doing it. Principles, Mr. Green. Our principles must be more than self-preservation.”
He thought of the lives that had been lost. He thought of the lives that still may be lost. He did not argue. He followed.
It was too cold for insect song. The mountain was the whine and knock of trees fretting in the wind and the chatter of desiccated leaves.
She shrugged her coat up and tucked her chin into the collar. It made her look like a toddler in an oversized hand-me-down.
“Still, it’s true that I have never risked getting closer than a meter to the hole. Getting closer may well be the key. The poultice recipe Clara provided also has a promising track record. We shall see. One way or another, it will be intriguing to find out. Whatever happens, do not fail to record your observations to share with our colleagues.”
She pulled up her chin and smiled at Green. Even with blue lips, it was a genuine smile.
“You are easily the toughest person I’ve ever met,” he said.
She gave a shaky half bow.
“I am old. I am a field scientist. I am a teacher. I am a woman. And, I think it’s fair at this point to say, I am Appalachian as well. It is a rather tough combination.”
Her voice was thin. Her shoulders shivered. Her breathing was labored. But there was still that wicked fairy fire in her eyes.
Valentina Blackwood.
He didn’t know how much of that name was original to her. He didn’t know how she was still alive. He didn’t know even a fraction of her story, but something told him he knew the parts that counted and he was in absolute awe of her.
She returned her attention to the dark path and he followed suit.
Between the dark and Valentina’s gait, their progress was slow.
He visited Catskill in his thoughts.
The wolf was always moving, always questing with the same certainty of purpose.
Cornfields.
Pinewoods.
A weedy lot full of huge spools of wire and telephone poles stacked like cordwood.
Racing across the brush-choked foothills with hummingbird speed and agility.
